הכתב והקבלה — ויעבד עמו עוד שבע שנים אחרות

Q — Chazal say of 'שבע שנים אחרות' — 'מה הראשונות באמונה אף האחרונות באמונה.' But the יפה תאר protests: 'אחרות' normally signals *difference* (וְהָיְתָה לְאִישׁ אַחֵר; בְּגָדִים אֲחֵרִים — Yoma 23b 'פחותין מהן'), not equivalence! How is 'אחרות' a hekesh?

A — HaKtav VeHaKabbalah's elegant resolution: Yaakov never really worked *for Leah* — both periods were genuinely for Rachel. The natural verb would have been 'עוד הפעם שבע שנים.' The Torah specifically chose 'אחרות' to encode Yaakov's interior reframing: he *mentally treated* the second seven years as wholly new — as if he had never worked for Rachel before, as if the first seven had been for Leah — and only now was beginning fresh, separate years of devoted service. The hekesh and the difference are both preserved: outwardly identical service ('שתיהן באמונה'), inwardly relabeled as fresh start. 'אחרות' captures the relabeling, not the actual purpose.